West Bank Mardi Gras?

That's what is says:-

Mardi Gras parade-viewing stands being erected on West Bank

But, again, that's down in New Orleans.

On the West Bank, a crew from Center Staging has been working since Saturday to erect the Mardi Gras reviewing stands...The 120 foot x 40 platform is being built in advance for the upcoming parade season which kicks off Friday, February 10...The parade will begin at Kabel Drive and Gen. DeGaulle in Algiers and end at Lafayette Street and the West Bank Expressway. The crew started on Saturday, January 21,2012 and expected to be done by Thursday.

And don't forget, in our "West Bank", the beads are used for praying:

Credit

Not for other uses.

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And Then There Are Other Women...

Like her



(k/t=IMRA)

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Was Barghouti Convincing Enough?

Marwan Barghouti in court declares "the end of the conflict - withdrawal to the 1967 border".

There's someone who doesn't seem to be all that convinced:-

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Dopey Op-Doc at NYTimes

At the NYTimes, you can see an op-doc by Ra’anan Alexandrowicz, writer and director of “The Law in These Parts,” which is screening at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. He lives in Jerusalem and teaches film at the Jerusalem Sam Spiegel Film and Television School and read this introduction:

Israel’s Supreme Court is the body that provides checks and balances to the country’s executive and legislative powers, upholding constitutional standards...

¶ In the four decades since the 1967 Six-Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors, the court has become a stage for an escalating conflict between two very different world views.

¶ Israel is the only modern state that has held territories under military occupation for over four decades. It is also unusual for a nation to allow residents of territories under a military occupation to petition its Supreme Court and request intervention in acts of state.

¶ Since the early years of the occupation...[rather] than functioning as the bastion of human rights that it was established to be, it has instead become the entity responsible for balancing the needs of a state engaged in a prolonged occupation with basic principles of democracy.

¶ This Op-Doc expands on one of the themes explored in my new feature documentary, “The Law in These Parts,” and asks about the role of the Supreme Court in the legal underpinnings of the longest military occupation in modern times.

I left this comment there:

RA is being petulantly picayune writing: "Israel is the only modern state that has held territories under military occupation for over four decade". Really?

Consider:

Morocco’s occupation of Western Sahara has “only” lasted three plus decades. Turkey’s occupation of Northern Cyprus – a mere 37 years. But Russia’s occupation of the Kuril Islands began in August 1945…

And Tibet has been occupied by China since 1949.

And many consider Northern Ireland occupied, even after the 1998 arrangements of an Executive.

But I suggest the term is "belligerent occupation", resulting from an Arab war of aggression in 1967 and by acting in defense, not only does Israel have the right to retain all or most of the territories it now administers, but as Schweible, Rostow and other international law experts claim, Israel has a better right than anyone to remain there in Judea and Samaria based on, at the least, discussions, declarations and decisions of Balfour 1917, the Versailles Peace Conference of 1919, the San Remo Conference of 1920 and the League of Nations 1922.

And isn't it amazing that none of this legalese was ever voiced when those territories were invaded by, illegally occupied by and illegally annexed to Jordan all through 1948-1967?

I left out Kashmir.


UPDATE

It is up.

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Dead Sea Tread See

Ever heard of those Dead Sea sinkholes?

Well, here's the science:

The Dead Sea sinkhole hazard: Geophysical assessment of salt dissolution and collapse

Abstract:

A geophysical approach is presented for analyzing processes of subsurface salt dissolution and associated sinkhole hazard along the Dead Sea. The implemented methods include Seismic Refraction (SRFR), Transient Electromagnetic Method (TEM), Electric Resistivity Tomography (ERT), and Ground Penetration Radar (GPR). The combination of these methods allows the delineation of the salt layer boundaries, estimating its porosity distribution, finding cavities within the salt layer, and identifying deformations in the overlying sediments. This approach is shown to be useful for anticipating the occurrence of specific sinkholes, as demonstrated on both shores of the Dead Sea. These sinkholes are observed mainly along the edge of a salt layer deposited during the latest Pleistocene, when Lake Lisan receded to later become the Dead Sea. This salt layer is dissolved by aggressive water flowing from adjacent and underlying aquifers which drain to the Dead Sea. Sinkhole formation is accelerating today due to the rapid fall of the Dead Sea levels during the last 30 years, caused by anthropogenic use of its water.

Be careful

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Where Was the "Farthest Mosque" Located?

[Now Updated]

The current official position on Jerusalem and Muhammed in Islam is basically this:

...it was Al-Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem that was the destination of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, on the famous Night Journey referred to in the Qur'an and hadith. It was here that Muhammad led the prophets in prayer and it was from here that he ascended through the heavens visiting the prophets again on his way to the sidrat al-muntaha, the Lote Tree of the Furthest Limit, and his encounter with his Lord.

And this:

Initially, Rashidun and Umayyad-era scholars were in disagreement about the location of the "remotest sanctuary" with some arguing it was actually located near Mecca. Eventually scholarly consensus determined that its location was indeed in Jerusalem.[55 - Meri and Bacharach, 2006, p.50]

On the question of Islam's relationship with Jerusalem and Jerusalem in the Koran, there are Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi's opinions:-

The most common argument against Muslim acknowledgment of Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem is that, since al-Quds [Jerusalem] (4) is a Holy Place for Muslims, Muslims cannot accept that it is ruled by non-Muslims, because such acceptance amounts to a betrayal of Islam.

Before expressing our point of view on this question, we must reflect upon the reason for which Jerusalem and Masjid al-Aqsa [the Al Aksa mosque] hold such a sacred position in Islamic faith.

As is well known, the inclusion of Jerusalem among Islamic holy places derives from al-Mi'raj, the Ascension of the Prophet Muhammed to heaven. The Ascension began at the Rock, usually identified by Muslim scholars as the Foundation Stone of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem referred to in Jewish sources.

Recalling this link requires us to admit that there is no connection between al-Miraj [the Ascension] and Muslim sovereign rights over Jerusalem since, in the time that al-Miraj took place, the City was not under Islamic, but under Byzantine administration. Moreover, the Qur'an expressly recognizes that Jerusalem plays for Jews the same role that Mecca does for Muslims.

We read:

"...They would not follow thy direction of prayer (qiblah), nor art thou to follow their direction of prayer; nor indeed will they follow each other's direction of prayer..." (5)

All Qur'anic commentators explain that "thy qiblah" [direction of prayer for Muslims] is clearly the Ka'bah of Mecca, while "their qiblah" [direction of prayer for Jews] refers to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

To quote only one of the most important Muslim commentators, we read in Qadn Baydawn's Commentary:

"Verily, in their prayers Jews orientate themselves toward the Rock (sakhrah), while Christians orientate themselves eastwards..." (6)

In complete opposition to what "Islamic" fundamentalists continuously claim, the Book of Islam [the Qur'an] - as we have just now seen - recognizes Jerusalem as the Jewish direction of prayer.

...from an Islamic point of view - despite opposing, groundless claims - there is no reason for Muslims to deny the State of Israel - which is a JEWISH state - complete sovereignty over Jerusalem.

************************************

...The Kotel was effectively, according to the Islamic tradition, the place where al-Buraq [the Prophet's steed] was tethered, but it was already an existing part of the Herodian structure. Muslims have never prayed close to it, and it has never had a special relevance in Islam. On the contrary, everyone knows how important it is for Jewish worshippers.

Apart from Mecca, no Islamic holy place is off-limits for non-Muslims. Historical sources say that the Prophet Muhammad entertained a delegation of Christians from Najran in the Mosque of Medina, and permitted them to celebrate a mass inside the Mosque, notwithstanding the fact that Christian rites can include words that are against Islam [such as stating that Jesus is God].

There is nothing in Jewish worship that can be offensive for Muslims, and nothing in Islamic Law prevents Jews to pray on Haram al-Sharif/Har Habayyit (the Temple Mount), in the Cave of Machpela or in any other place that is regarded as holy by Muslims.

Daniel Pipes quotes the late Moshe Kohn:

Jerusalem and Zion appear as frequently in the Qur'an "as they do in the Hindu Bhagavad-Gita, the Taoist Tao-Te Ching, the Buddhist Dhamapada and the Zoroastrian Zend Avesta"—which is to say, not once.

and adds:

...the first qibla (direction of prayer) of Islam, did not last long. The Jews criticized the new faith and rejected the friendly Islamic gestures; not long after, the Qur'an broke with them, probably in early 624. The explanation of this change comes in a Qur'anic verse instructing the faithful no longer to pray toward Syria but instead toward Mecca. The passage (2:142-52) begins by anticipating questions about this abrupt change:

The Fools among the people will say: "What has turned them [the Muslims] from the qibla to which they were always used?"

God then provides the answer:

We appointed the qibla that to which you was used, only to test those who followed the Messenger [Muhammad] from those who would turn on their heels [on Islam].

In other words, the new qibla served as a way to distinguish Muslims from Jews. From now on, Mecca would be the direction of prayer:

now shall we turn you to a qibla that shall please you. Then turn your face in the direction of the Sacred Mosque [in Mecca]. Wherever you are, turn your faces in that direction.

The Qur'an then reiterates the point about no longer paying attention to Jews:

Even if you were to bring all the signs to the people of the Book [i.e., Jews], they would not follow your qibla.

and adds more:

...note a passage of the Qur'an (17:1) describing the Prophet Muhammad's Night Journey to heaven (isra'):

Glory to He who took His servant by night from the Sacred Mosque to the furthest mosque. (Subhana allathina asra bi-'abdihi laylatan min al-masjidi al-harami ila al-masjidi al-aqsa.)

When this Qur'anic passage was first revealed, in about 621, a place called the Sacred Mosque already existed in Mecca. In contrast, the "furthest mosque" was a turn of phrase, not a place. Some early Muslims understood it as metaphorical or as a place in heaven. And if the "furthest mosque" did exist on earth, Palestine would seem an unlikely location, for many reasons. Some of them:

Elsewhere in the Qur'an (30:1), Palestine is called "the closest land" (adna al-ard). Palestine had not yet been conquered by the Muslims and contained not a single mosque. The "furthest mosque" was apparently identified with places inside Arabia: either Medina or a town called Ji'rana, about ten miles from Mecca, which the Prophet visited in 630.

The earliest Muslim accounts of Jerusalem, such as the description of Caliph 'Umar's reported visit to the city just after the Muslims conquest in 638, nowhere identify the Temple Mount with the "furthest mosque" of the Qur'an. The Qur'anic inscriptions that make up a 240-meter mosaic frieze inside the Dome of the Rock do not include Qur'an 17:1 and the story of the Night Journey, suggesting that as late as 692 the idea of Jerusalem as the lift-off for the Night Journey had not yet been established. (Indeed, the first extant inscriptions of Qur'an 17:1 in Jerusalem date from the eleventh century.)

Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiya (638-700), a close relative of the Prophet Muhammad, is quoted denigrating the notion that the prophet ever set foot on the Rock in Jerusalem; "these damned Syrians," by which he means the Umayyads, "pretend that God put His foot on the Rock in Jerusalem, though [only] one person ever put his foot on the rock, namely Abraham."

Then, in 715, to build up the prestige of their dominions, the Umayyads did a most clever thing: they built a second mosque in Jerusalem, again on the Temple Mount, and called this one the Furthest Mosque (al-masjid al-aqsa, Al-Aqsa Mosque). With this, the Umayyads retroactively gave the city a role in Muhammad's life. This association of Jerusalem with al-masjid al-aqsa fit into a wider Muslim tendency to identify place names found in the Qur'an: "wherever the Koran mentions a name of an event, stories were invented to give the impression that somehow, somewhere, someone, knew what they were about."

Ziad Abu-Amr explains the Islamic position:

...Jerusalem's multifaceted meaning stands behind the interest of Muslims all over the world in the land of Palestine as a whole. The city has strong evocative and emotional associations and has its own place in the hearts of Muslims. It is considered the third-holiest city in Islam after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. It derives its religious prominence from being the first Qibla, the initial direction toward which the Prophet Muhammad and the early Muslim community turned their faces in prayer. The direction was changed a year and a half later to Mecca by "divine command."

Jerusalem also derives significance from its association with Prophet Muhammad's miraculous nocturnal journey to the city and then his ascen¬sion to Heaven. This event is mentioned in the Koran in the first verse of chapter 17, "Glory be to Him, who carried His servant by night from the Holy Mosque to the Further Mosque (al-Masjid al-Aqsa), the precincts of which We have blessed, that we might show him some of our signs."2

In the nocturnal journey (al-lsra'wal Mi'raj) , according to Muslim tra¬dition, Muhammad was transported one night on a winged horse from Mecca to Jerusalem where he led Abraham, Moses, and Jesus in a prayer. Afterwards, Muhammad ascended to heaven accompanied by the archangel Gabriel. In this journey of ascension, Muhammad passed through the seven heavens where he encountered earlier prophets. The Dome of the Rock is the site from which Muhammad ascended. Although some critics argue that Muhammad's journey was spiritual and not physical, this journey has a three-fold significance:

First, it linked the city of Jerusalem with Islam in its very early days in addition to the sura which refers to Jerusalem as the first Qibla. Second, it inspired the Muslims with a bulk of lore, so much so, that Muslims all over the world celebrate that occasion every year. Third, it ushered in a new era in the life of the city because, from then on, the Muslims con¬sidered it their holy duty to protect it from the encroachment of the Byzantines and the Persians who were non-Semitic people.3

In addition, it is believed that a Koranic verse (v. 44 of chapter 43) was revealed in Jerusalem: "Ask those of our messengers We sent before thee — Have We appointed apart from the All-Merciful, gods to be served?”4

Can anything be added?

Yes.

In an academic paper I just discovered, “Muhammad’s Night Journey (isra’) to al-Masjid al-Aqsa: Aspects of the Earliest Origins of the Islamic Sanctity of Jerusalem”, al-Qantara 29 (2008), 147-65, it is claimed that the Shi'a branch of Islam considered the Al-Aksa Mosque not to be in Mecca or Medina or Jerusalem but...in Heaven:

and he clarifies a theological point:

Read it all. And I suggest his book.

PS - Consider this, too.
___________________________

UPDATE

By popular request, okay, ChallahHuAkbar suggeseted it, here's from Prof. Motti Kedar:

Jerusalem, too, underwent the process of Islamization: at first Muhammad attempted to convince the Jews near Medina to join his young community, and, by way of persuasion, established the direction of prayer (kiblah) to be to the north, towards Jerusalem, in keeping with Jewish practice; but after he failed in this attempt he turned against the Jews, killed many of them, and directed the kiblah southward, towards Mecca.  Muhammad's abandonment of Jerusalem explains the fact that this city is not mentioned even once in the Koran...Jerusalem meant nothing to them.

Islam rediscovered Jerusalem 50 years after Mohammad's death. In 682 CE...Abd al-Malik, the Umayyad Calif, needed an alternative site for the pilgrimage and settled on Jerusalem which was then under his control. In order to justify this choice, a verse from the Koran was chosen (17,1 = sura 17, verse,) which states (translation by Majid Fakhri):

“Glory to Him who caused His servant to travel by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque, whose precincts We have blessed, in order to show him some of Our Signs, He is indeed the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing. "

The meaning ascribed to this verse is that "the furthest mosque" (al-masgid al-aqsa) is in Jerusalem and that Mohammad was conveyed there...Thus Islam tries to gain legitimacy over other, older religions...Not surprisingly, this miraculous account contradicts a number of the tenets of Islam: How can a living man of flesh and blood ascend to heaven? How can a mythical creature carry a mortal to a real destination? Questions such as these have caused orthodox Muslim thinkers to conclude that the nocturnal journey was a dream of Mohammad's...

What are the difficulties with the belief that the al-Aqsa mosque described in Islamic tradition is located in Jerusalem? For one, the people of Mecca, who knew Muhammad well, did not believe this story. Only Abu Bakr, (later the first Calif,) believed him and thus was called al-Siddiq (“the believer").  The second difficulty is that Islamic tradition tells us that al-Aqsa mosque is near Mecca on the Arabian Peninsula. This was unequivocally stated in "Kitab al-Maghazi," a book by the Muslim historian and geographer al-Waqidi. According to al-Waqidi, there were two "masjeds" (places of prayer) in al-Gi'irranah, a village between Mecca and Ta'if - one was "the closer mosque" (al-masjid al-adna) and the other was "the further mosque" (al-masjid al-aqsa,) and Muhammad would pray there when he went out of town. This...is supported by a chain of authorities (isnad) [but] was not "convenient" for the Islamic propaganda of the 7th Century. In order to establish a basis for the awareness of the "holiness" of Jerusalem in Islam, the Califs of the Ummayad dynasty invented many “traditions" upholding the value of Jerusalem, which would justify pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the faithful Muslims. Thus was al-Masjid al-Aqsa "transported" to Jerusalem.

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Superbowl at The Gov

Monday, February 6, 2012

So this is it lades and gentleman.
Superbowl 46 is here and the Gov is also here to offer you the best Superbowl experiences you can get in Israel!

At 1:30AM the New England Patriots and the New York Giant will clash in one of the most exciting Superbowl rematches of all time...and you sure don't want to miss this battle!

Seats are very limited so in order for you to reserve one (or two...) You may send an email to - thelionsdenbar@gmail.com or a private message to Facebook user - Bar HaGov.

*ENTRANCE TO THE GOV IS 21 AND UP!!!!

Once again there are very limited sets available so be sure to message us ASAP!

Thanks,

The Gov crew.

Location - just past the new HaMashbir store on Yoel Salomon Street in downtown Jerusalem (mentioned in the NYTimes, twice! here and also here):

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Hollywood Jewish Modesty Style

Uma Thurman:-

Previous modesty star model.

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Fishman's Fallen (oops, Fishman's Fallen Angel)

Tzvi Fishman is a good friend.  Good in the sense of close and good in the sense of a precious mencsh.

His new book, Fallen Angel, is out and it can be purchased here.

The blurb:

Harry Walsh is a brilliant, cynical, whoring conman, the bestseller author of phony "spiritual" self-help books. In past reincarnations, he appeared again and again as some of world history's most infamous and murderous characters, including Cain, Nimrod, Bilaam the Sorceror, Nebuchadnezzar, Antiochus, Titus, Muhammad, and King Richard the Lionhearted, to mention just a few. Now, the Almighty has decided to give Harry one last chance to change his errant ways. But when an angel arrives in New York with the mission of convincing Harry to set his present licentious life in order and break free from his sordid past, the angel himself falls to the temptations of the fast life in America as he tours around the country with the ribald celebrity. This modern day fable if filled with humor and hilarious escapades as it traces the unlikely friendship that springs up between the angel and the soul-stained writer. Along the way, the reader is taken on a roller-coaster ride through world history, encountering, along with Harry, startling insights and deep, poignant truths which have the power to illuminate the spiritual darkness of our times and add the Divine light and connection that is missing from our lives.

And since Arutz 7 took it off its website, it must be good.

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The Eldad Memorial Meeting

Tribute to Poet/Freedom Fighter Dr. Israel Eldad

An evening to honor the late Dr. Israel Eldad will be held on Wednesday in Jerusalem. Dr. Eldad was a leader and top ideologue of the Lehi - Lohamei Herut Yisrael (Fighter for the Freedom of Israel), also known as the Stern Group. He was the author of The Jewish Revolution, Israel: The Road to Full Redemption, The First Tithe, and Chronicles, a collection of newspapers depicting ancient Jewish historical events written in the style of modern newspaper articles.

The event will be hosted by columnist Yisrael Medad and feature Dr. Eldad's son Member of Knesset Aryeh Eldad, fellow Lehi member Geula Cohen, Dr. Baruch Fallach and Yael Ben-Dov. Karni Eldad will provide musical interludes. It will be held at the Uri Zvi Greenberg House, 34 Jaffa Street in downtown Jerusalem, at 8:00 PM on Wednesday January 25th.

For more information call 02-623-1532 or email azagg@walla.co.il.

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Isn't This Just...Grand?

First, there was Palestine Media Watch

Mufti denies applying Hadith about Muslims killing Jews to today's conflict

PMW report shows that Mufti did apply call to kill Jews to current conflict  ||  Following PMW report, PM Netanyahu calls for criminal investigation of PA Mufti

The PA Mufti Muhammad Hussein repeatedly denied yesterday that he intended to teach Palestinians that their destiny is to kill Jews when he spoke at a Fatah celebration that was broadcast on PA TV earlier this month. His denial follows Palestinian Media Watch's exposure of the PA Mufti's speech in which he cited the Islamic tradition attributed to Muhammad, saying:

"The Hour [of Resurrection] will not come until you fight the Jews. The Jew will hide behind stones or trees. Then the stones or trees will call: 'Oh Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him."

However, the Mufti explained to AP, Reuters and Israeli radio and TV that he simply quoted Islamic tradition and therefore he is not responsible for its content. When interviewed on Israeli radio Reshet Bet, the PA Mufti claimed:

"We are not calling to kill Jews and we did not call to kill Jews, we never said 'kill Jews.' The Hadith says [it]. I am not responsible for the Hadith. The Hadith is in the book. The Hadith is a noble Hadith, it is not my Hadith."
[Reshet Bet (Israeli radio), Jan. 22, 2012]

The PA Minister of Religious Affairs, Mahmoud Al-Habbash, also defended the Mufti, saying on the same radio program:
"This is not incitement to kill Jews. We cannot change the historical religious writings and we don't want to change them. However, we are talking now about the reality. The reality is that we want to achieve a just peace."

PMW rejects PA Mufti's and Minister of Religion's claims:

The statements of the two highest religious authorities in the Palestinian Authority are misrepresentations of what the Mufti said. In fact, the words he chose to provide a context for the Hadith show that he quoted this Hadith that anticipates Muslims killing Jews, to make it relevant for the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The Mufti introduced the Hadith by referring to the "47 years" of Fatah's and the Palestinian "revolution," thus placing the Hadith in today's context. He then added that this is a "reliable Hadith" from the reliable collections and part of accepted Islamic law and belief. After citing the Hadith, the Mufti claimed that Israelis are planting the "Gharqad tree surrounding the [Israeli] settlements and colonies," thus suggesting that Israel is preparing for when the Muslims fulfill this Hadith and come to kill them. According to the Islamic tradition the Gharqad tree will be the only tree that will not call out to Muslims to kill the Jews hiding behind them. By saying Israelis are already planting Gharqad trees around their cities, the Mufti was explicitly relating the Hadith about the killing of Jews to the current time. He was not merely citing "historical religious writings," as claimed...none of the media quoted the context in which the Mufti cited the Hadith, which shows his denial to be a misrepresentation and that he did relate it to today's conflict.

In addition, the Mufti claimed to MENA [Middle East News Agency] that "possibly some sentences or phrases were cut from his speech, which were interpreted incorrectly." PMW affirms that we have the entire 5-minute speech as was broadcast on PA TV and that this is the authentic context.

The following is the Mufti's words at the Fatah event that show the context in which he cited the Hadith, followed by excerpts from AP and Reuters' reports:

Moderator at Fatah ceremony:
"Our war with the descendants of the apes and pigs (i.e., Jews) is a war of religion and faith. Long Live Fatah! [I invite you,] our honorable Sheikh."

PA Mufti Muhammad Hussein comes to the podium and says:
"47 years ago the [Fatah] revolution started. Which revolution? The modern revolution of the Palestinian people's history. In fact, Palestine in its entirety is a revolution, since [Caliph] Umar came [to conquer Jerusalem, 637 CE], and continuing today, and until the End of Days. The reliable Hadith (tradition attributed to Muhammad), [found] in the two reliable collections, Bukhari and Muslim, says:
"The Hour [of Resurrection] will not come until you fight the Jews.
The Jew will hide behind stones or trees.
Then the stones or trees will call:
'Oh Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.'
Except the Gharqad tree [which will keep silent]."
Therefore it is no wonder that you see Gharqad [trees] surrounding the [Israeli] settlements and colonies. This is Palestine, when we talk about it, from the beginning of the Jihad, with the continuation of the Jihad, with the struggle, and with the way of the Martyrs."

and now, MEMRI

MEMRI January 9, 2012 Clip No. 3275

PA Mufti of Jerusalem Muhammad Hussein: The Muslims Will Kill the Jews
before Judgment Day

Following are excerpts from a statement by PA Mufti of Jerusalem Sheik
Muhammad Hussein, which aired on Palestinian Authority TV, on January 9,
2012:

Announcer: [I invite] the honorable sheik, Sheik Muhammad Hussein, the Mufti
of Jerusalem and the Islamic lands. His words are necessary because our war
with the descendents of apes and pigs is a religious war of faith.

Long live Fatah.

Go ahead, sheik.

[…]

Muhammad Hussein: In both collections of the hadith, Al-Bukhari and Muslim
say to us: "Judgment Day will not come before you fight the Jews, and the
Jews will hide behind a stone or a tree, and the stone or the tree will say:
Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him,
with the exception of the gharqad tree" – and this is why it is not uncommon
to see gharqad trees around the settlements and so on.

[…]

[MEMRI holds copyrights on all translations. Materials may only be used with
proper attribution.]

And check previous posts:
here; and here; and also here, among many.
^

Obama/Clinton - "Palestine Firsters"?

After all the noise about the latent antisemitism at CAP and the use of "Israel Firster", and all the apologetica, I guess calling President Obama and Sec'y of State Clinton "Palestine Firsters" would be acceptable to those progressive radical liberal forces who can't stand Israel?

And why?

Well, at the end of December we had this:

The US State Department said Congress has released $40 million in aid to the Palestinians, part of the nearly $200 million that was frozen over their bid for full UN recognition.

"We have been working with Congress for some time, because we don't think it's in US national interests to keep this money frozen," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters, saying US diplomats were "gratified" by the move. The monies, provided through the Economic Support Fund, are targeted for economic and humanitarian support.

What could "Palestine First" about this, in a negative sense?  Well, read this from January 3:-

On Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Obama State Department proudly announced an initial contribution of $55 million [above was $40 - YM] for Palestinians living in the West Bank, Gaza and other parts of the Middle East. President Barack Obama and the State Department claim the $55 million contribution will provide critical health, education, and humanitarian services to five million Palestinian refugees in the region.

...What the State Department neglected to mention regarding the Palestinians in Lebanon is that they are undergoing training by the Lebanese-based terrorist group Hezbollah, say many counterterrorism experts.

The State Department's press release claims that United States recognizes the critical role the Agency plays in assisting Palestinian refugees and maintaining regional stability and calls upon other donors to enhance their support for UNRWA. Sadly, Israeli intelligence sources say some of the aid money is used to purchase weapons such as fully-automatic firearms, rockets, and explosives.

In 2011, the United States provided $75 million to the United Nations West Bank/Gaza emergency programs, $15 million to emergency programs in Lebanon, and $10 million for the construction of five new schools in Gaza, which will serve an estimated 10,000 schoolchildren. However, the U.S. is not allowed input into the school curriculum which is notoriously anti-Israeli. [it incites, delegitimizes and urges violence against Jews, see next sentence]

In fact, the Law Enforcement Examiner in 2011 ran stories regarding the indoctrination of children and the terrorist training provided by Hamas to youngsters living in Gaza.

In December 2011, the Law Enforcement Examiner reported that members of Palestinian groups, including terrorists from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, met with representatives from President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party on Tuesday in Cairo, Egypt. Egypt's representatives at the meeting included members of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists.

And, back in November, there was this:

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton phoned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday night and demanded that he release Palestinian tax revenue that Israel has frozen for more than a month after UNESCO accepted the Palestinians as a member. A senior U.S. official and an Israeli source familiar with details of the conversation say Clinton called Netanyahu after messages relayed to him in recent weeks on the tax money were not answered positively.

and you can hear her earlier giving money).

Well, if Hillary wants Netanyahu to fund Israel's own demise, that surely could qualify as a definition of a "Palestine Firster".
If that isn't "Palestine First", I don't know what is.

PS  Mairav Zonszein calls Obama an "Israel Firster".

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My Interview on Migron on IBA English TV News

Here:



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Jerusalem Reclaimed

A half-day symposium at University of Texas at Austin's Center for Middle Eastern Studies, College of Liberal Arts will take place on March 26, 2012, 1:00–4:45pm on

Picking Up the Pieces: Refiguring Jerusalem and Rome in Late Antiquity

According to the notice alert, the symposium explores how Jerusalem and Rome were re-invigorated as actual urban spaces and re-imagined in cultural memory over the course of late antiquity in response to the disruptive crises each experienced. Rather than following the narrative of the decline that has so often been applied to the fate of the post-classical city, the four papers to be presented at the symposium take their lead from scholars like Annabel Wharton who have highlighted the ongoing and dynamic transformation of the ancient Mediterranean city in the late Roman and early Byzantine period (third to sixth centuries). While Jerusalem and Rome are exceptional in many respects, each also provides an excellent lens through which to consider the cultural strategies and resources available to those who might seek to maintain the sacral status of cities facing historical rupture.

As the remains of both literary and material culture attest, Jerusalem and Rome could be revitalized in a wide variety of ways: through alternations in the ritual use of space; through the restoration of their architectural monuments or their replication elsewhere; through pilgrimage or through the dispersal of relics and other sacred artifacts; and, in all cases, through the narration—and ongoing renarration—of local histories. The symposium will thus illuminate how Jerusalem and Rome would survive antiquity not only as living cities in their own right, but perhaps more importantly as primary models in Western culture for
the construction and authorization of urban spaces as arenas of political and religious power and meaning.

I would suggest that the reclaiming of sacral status through pilgrimage, narration and as an arena for political and religious power and meaning is doing very well for Jerusalem at present as the united eternall capital of the Jewish people.

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Get Academically Occupied

Suggested lecture to attend in New York, at NYU:

Eugene Kontorovich on Disputing Occupation

On Wednesday, January 25, Eugene Kontorovich will discuss the topic of "Disputing Occupation: Israel's Borders and International Law." The speech will examine such central questions as legal status of settlements, the “1967 borders,” and Palestinian statehood and self-determination.

Professor Kontorovich’s research spans the fields of constitutional law, international law, and law and economics. He has authored a series of papers that extend the economic analysis of law to public law. Prof. Kontorovich is also one of the leading experts on maritime piracy, universal jurisdiction and international criminal law. He has been called on to advise lawyers in historic piracy trials around the world. He is working on a book, Justice at Sea: Piracy and the Limits of International Criminal Law, under contract with Harvard University Press. His scholarship has been relied upon in numerous federal judicial opinions.

What: Eugene Kontorovich on "Disputing Occupation: Israel's Borders and International Law"
When: Wednesday, 1/25 @ 4pm
Where: Vanderbilt Hall 218

If you do, take notes!

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Ultra-Hareidi Anti-Zionist Semantics

Here are four pages of the Tevet issue of Shura D'Karta, an organ of the most radical ultra-Hareidi anti-Zionist groups, a spin-off, split-off, from Neturei Karta, the Ohel Rachel group.

They are the editorial shorts and I've noted some dozen instances of irrational semantics in phrases in the first two pages which I will translate (I am not going to do the entire four pages - even I have my limits of tolerance)

1. "uprooting religion edicts"
2. "their devilish machinations"
3. "communities forcibly destroyed, eradicated and burnt"
4. "in the Zionist ovens"
5. "in the jands of these Amalekites"
6. "these impure Amalekites"
7. "all the pogroms and murders"
8. "the Iranian threat doesn't bother them as much as the Hareidi threat"

9. "these cruel Nazi-zionists"
10. "barbaric and cruel murder"
11. "Nazi police"

Here are the other two pages but without detailed translations.

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I Have A Press Problem

A "Press TV" problem.

Today, I was interviewed again by the Press TV rep in Jerusalem, Ibrahim.

And then I find out this, via :-

Britain revokes Iranian TV network’s license

Britain’s media regulator revoked the broadcast license for the Iranian state-owned television network Press TV on Friday, saying the network had failed to address concerns over its editorial independence and had not paid a fine. The network was set to cease broadcasting almost immediately...The move follows a marked chilling of relations between Britain and Iran after hundreds of Iranian protesters stormed the British Embassy in Tehran last November. Britain closed its embassy in Tehran and expelled all Iranian diplomats in London...(New York Times)

and

Press TV was found to have been operating editorial control from Tehran, breaching UK broadcasting licence rules.

“In the course of correspondence and meetings with Ofcom, statements made by Press TV Limited about the operation of the Licensed Service failed to satisfy Ofcom that the Licensee had general control over which programmes and other services were comprised in the Licensed Service. Ofcom therefore concluded that Press TV Limited had ceased to provide the Licensed Service in accordance with section 362(2) of the Act and that, accordingly, it was appropriate to revoke TLCS Licence 1211 under Condition 29(2)(a) of that Licence and section 238(4) of the Communications Act 2003. The Licence was revoked on 20 January 2012,” Ofcom said in a statement.

Press TV blames the 'Zionists':-

The Zionist Britain Israel Communications & Research Centre (Bicom) has collaborated with the state-controlled British Office of Communications (Ofcom) to ban the alternative English-language channel Press TV in the UK, a political analyst says.

“With anti-Iran sabotage activities high on its agenda, Bicom has worked closely with Ofcom towards eliminating a critical voice: Press TV,” Ismail Salami, Iranian author and Middle East expert, wrote in an article published on Press TV on Sunday.

So, why is Press TV still working in Israel?  Are we the most democratic, pluralistic society around?

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Arab Illegal Settlement?

Arab sources, via IMRA, are reporting:

Israeli forces Sunday handed two Palestinians from Joreish village, south of Nablus notices to evacuate their land and demolish water wells, according to local sources.

Ghassan Daghlas, in charge of the settlements file at the Palestinian Authority in the northern part of the West Bank, said that Israeli soldiers gave the village’s residents 45 day notice to demolish the wells and evacuate the land.

Joreish or better, Jourish, is right near Shiloh, north of us.

It's where the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), the United Nations Development Programme/Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People (UNDP/PAPP) has requested bids from eligible contractors to perform Construction of the Jourish Women Community Center - Jourish Village – Nablus Governorate.

In any case, since Daghlas is an inveterate misconstruer, we'll wait until all the facts are in.

Or at least while the jury on Jurish is out.

After all, could it be that Arabs are engaged in illegal settlement?


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'West Bank' Woman Treated Subhumanely

Sorry, but Israel not responsible.

West Bank woman freed from bathroom prison

QALQIYLA, West Bank, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- Palestinian police said they rescued a young woman who had been locked in a bathroom by her father over a family dispute for more than nine years.  The 20-year-old woman, who apparently had not seen sunlight since she was 11 years old, was turned over to a social worker at a police station and her dad was arrested. Qalqilya police on the West Bank said the father told them he had imprisoned his daughter in the bathroom after some unspecified family quarrel nearly a decade ago.

Her dad!?

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United States Guilty By Association and Aloofness

Do you remember this item?

...at the same time that the Obama administration is assiduously courting the Taliban, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Iranian regime, according to Channel 2, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has refused to meet with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman during his upcoming trip to Washington. Channel 2 reported that senior US officials said that “Lieberman is an obstacle to peace. We don’t want our pictures taken with him and with what he represents.”

That was in a Caroline Glick column at the Jerusalem Post on January 19.

Well, what you think of photos of Anne Patterson, US Ambassador to Egypt, with top Muslim Brotherhood officials, who just met with Hamas' Meshal and Haniyeh, yesterday and in December?

Check out IsraellyCool.

Here's another photo:

From the official Muslim Brotherhood statement:

...Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood said that US Ambassador to Cairo Anne Patterson met with the group’s Supreme Guide Mohammed Badie on Wednesday, and reportedly told her that Sharia law, or Islamic law, “ensures personal freedoms for all.”

...Patterson expressed her gratitude for the meeting and congratulated the group for their political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), victory in the recent parliamentary elections, and stressed that the United States is looking forward to cooperate with “whoever is chosen by the Egyptian people and a democratic government...”The Supreme Guide criticized the successive US administrations and accused them of “controlling people through their support to the dictators,” which made the popularity of the United States decline across the region...Badie explained that the principles of Islamic Sharia law is the m”ain source of legislation and the biggest guarantee of public and private freedoms, as it ensures the freedom of belief, religion and personal rights to all citizens equally.”

For her part, Ambassador Patterson admitted that US administrations have committed some mistakes, but called for overcoming them and to “learn from them to avoid their recurrence in the future.”

She pointed out that democracy always brings stable partners.

Stable?

Stable?!

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